Microwave antennas are mounted on support structures such as monopoles and lattice towers. The microwave antennas propagate Radio Frequency (RF) communication signals through the air over relatively narrow beam paths. If the support structure twists or sways, the beam path is directed away from the receiving antenna, and as a result, wireless communication quality decreases.
Some support structures include a gyroscope, control systems, and motors that re-position the antennas to compensate for structural tilt and sway. Typically, the gyroscope directly measures the tilt and sway, and the control systems translate the gyroscope measurements into motor control instructions to drive the motors. There may be several motor control systems and motors on a single structural support that are driven by one gyroscope.
A gyroscope has a reference point that indicates the “zero point” for azimuth and angle determinations. Typically, the reference point is the direction north and the horizontal—a tangent plane to the earth's surface. The gyroscope measures tilt or sway by measuring its own physical offset from the reference point. The gyroscope measures its own offset by analyzing variations in internal electromagnetic signals that are induced by motion in a gravitational field (tilt and sway). The gyroscope translates these electromagnetic variations into motion measurements that indicate movement away from the reference point. Unfortunately, the reference point itself may become inaccurate over time due to internal electronic degradation within the gyroscope.
Overview
A gyroscope monitoring system operates with an antenna system that has a gyroscope that controls the position of multiple antennas. The monitoring system receives data indicating reference signal strengths and test signal strengths for the antennas. The monitoring system determine differences between the reference signal strengths and the test signal strengths. The monitoring system processes the differences to determine if the gyroscope has lost reference point accuracy, and if so, then the monitoring system generates an indication that the gyroscope has lost reference point accuracy. In some examples, the monitoring system also determines reference point offsets for the gyroscope and provides the offsets to the gyroscope for use in motion measurements.